A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who earned nearly $1.3 million while working in Dubai but failed to report the income to the Internal Revenue Service was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison.
Dr. Marc Mani, 50 -- named one of the country's 10 leading plastic surgeons by Forbes magazine -- was immediately taken into custody after his sentence was pronounced. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner also sentenced Mani to serve a year of supervised release after leaving prison.
"This was a particularly brazen tax crime of which Dr. Mani was warned on several occasions," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Hughes told the court.
Mani began to travel to Dubai in 2011 to perform plastic surgeries at a foreign medical center. His accountant, who was aware that Mani was earning foreign income, informed him that he would be required to report any foreign bank accounts under his ownership or control to the IRS.
In 2012, Mani opened a bank account with a financial institution based in Dubai and began depositing income he earned abroad into the account. By February 2013, Mani's foreign bank account held more than $400,000. However, the surgeon failed to disclose the account for the calendar years 2012 and 2013.
In addition to failing to disclose his interest in his foreign bank account, Mani also failed to report on his federal income tax returns the vast majority of the $1.28 million in foreign income he earned in Dubai.
Following his attorney's unsuccessful attempt to persuade Klausner to impose home detention and community service rather than a prison term, Mani apologized to "the taxpayers of this country."
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The doctor said he was motivated by "greed" and ignored good advice when he failed to disclose his Dubai earnings.
"It shakes me to the core and I know I will be atoning for this crime for the rest of my life," Mani told the judge.
Defense attorney Nathan Hochman said his client had a history of charitable medical work for veterans, burn victims and victims of domestic violence.
But the judge told Mani from the bench, "There's no question you've done great things -- but that doesn't absolve you for doing bad things."
Mani pleaded guilty last year in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of failing to file a foreign bank and financial account report for the 2013 tax year. The judge said Monday the defendant had fully paid restitution of more than $500,000.
United States citizens who have an interest in or authority over a financial account in a foreign country with assets over $10,000 are required to disclose and report the foreign financial account to the U.S. Department of Treasury for each year the financial account exists.
